I hear ya. I had an arc called "Ninja Rats in the Sewers". The one guy who somehow managed to find that arc amongst the pile of arcs with nearly that same name 2 starred it unfinished. >.>
The title was exactly what you got in the mission. Stealthy rodents with sai and katana skulking about in the sewers. I was a bit baffled on what part of it failed to live up to expectation. I know ninja rats is a tired meme, but it is rather mean spirited to play an arc you are sure you won't like just so you can rate it poorly. That's poor judgement, but not of the arc.
After the review, I gussied up the story a bit more, renamed it Khalam's Golden Tail. I re-presented it as an "open challenge" from the leader of the ninja rat clan, offering his golden tail as a reward for his defeat.
Basically it's an excuse to go down in the sewers and fight ninja rats, how much pretext is necessary with a premise like that? 
Just because it lived up to the title doesn't mean it is any good. Nor am I sure, based on what you've said, the player went in expecting a fail, just to waste his or her time to give you a poor rating. But part of being a writer is knowing you won't please everyone, and not to be sensitive to one person's opinion.
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My point is that if your going to use custom mobs, there will be some players that will use toons that have a weakness to whatever your using. There is really no way to prevent this from happening.
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And we shouldn't be expected to prevent it. Just about any character type is going to have at least one weakness. Part of the challenge of the game (such as it is 
) is to recognize those weaknesses, and find ways to overcome them.
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...MA players should also bring toons that can handle a tougher playing environment. I suspect that I will only play MA story content with either a scrapper or tanker...
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Couple of points about this:
While I agree, custom mobs should, as a rule, only be tackled with higher level characters, I'd disagree that Scrappers and Tankers are the end-all-be-all for MA soloing. There are several Defender, Controller, Blaster, and other squishy types able to solo just as well, if not better, than melee characters. They're just generally not as fast in doing so.
One example is my Scrapper hitting a brick wall with an end draining opponent that my Defender effortlessly squished. Then you have my Stalker who couldn't bring down an EB fast enough (kept healing), but my Controller defeated it with ease, due to holds and such.
It really comes down to sets and builds. My own preferred MA soloist is actually a Defender.
I mention this partially 'cuz I find that many "uber challenge missions" tend to be stuffed to the gills with melee customs. In truth, that's actually a very big and easily exploited weakness in mob design. Several of my squishies can waltz thru such "challenge" missions without any difficulty at all.
Just a note to keep in mind for those challenge builders out there. 
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Is it just me or are there essentially 2 MAs. One is for Teaming and getting XP, the other is for Solo, playing story arcs?
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Only if you let it be so. You could form your own team and go play arcs. PBTW, people like to solo a lot in MA to make sure they get a chance to read all of the story.
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Anyways, I would like to address the Solo/story arcs side. Since the costom critters are tougher than standard mobs, it became very evident that when I wanted to play story arcs, I really should take a character that can take a beating. Since the arc is unknown, you should be wise and prepare for a tough fight.
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Good arcs usually try and give you some idea about what you're going to face inside so that there's no rude surprise. Also, keep in mind that since these sorts of arcs are yes harder, you may not be able to play through them at the same difficulty level setting that you're used to playing at in non-MA stories. If you're getting beaten at every turn, go out, turn down your setting a notch, go back in; rinse and repeat as needed. Or start at the bottom and work up. I see this as something of a player responsibility issue; my 50th level stalker can take care of herself so I can take her in at higher difficulty levels, my 12th level Corr... not so much.
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Thus, I much prefer my scrapper or tanker to my blaster or defender. To me it just makes sense.
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That's already half way there to what I described above about player responsibility.
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The other side of this is that I also wrote 2 arcs (see below), yet I received a low rating because one player ran into the knockback that some of my custom mobs had in my second arc.
[/ QUOTE ]One guy's review does not necessarily equal truth. He may have been right for all I know, but remember than no matter what you do in an arc, someone will praise you for it, many won't mention it at all, and someone will castigate you for it. Welcome to the dev's world.
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I can certainly sympathize with that guys problems, and I tried to change the custom mobs but I am unsure how effective that will be because I changed one status effect for another (Power to Electricity).
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This is why you test, test and retest after making changes.
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My point is that if your going to use custom mobs, there will be some players that will use toons that have a weakness to whatever your using. There is really no way to prevent this from happening.
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Yup. We learn to live with it, just like we always have in the non-MA game. I found out the hard way that my Corr has a huge gap in his armor regarding Psy attacks this way, and that didn't happen to me in MA, it was in the usual content.
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In the end, what I guess I would like to say is that MA writers should be aware of this problem, but MA players should also bring toons that can handle a tougher playing environment. I suspect that I will only play MA story content with either a scrapper or tanker, because I want to follow the story and enjoy the content, I don't want to be taking trips to the hospital every few minutes.
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My 12th level MM has been doing just fine in MA since level 1. Once you get more comfy with the whole thing I think you'll find you can stretch your legs a bit more with your AT choice.
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Honestly, I felt quite bad about that person having trouble playing my arc, that is not what I intended. I want people to enjoy the story, not get miffed because of a game mechanic that is out of my control.
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See above about being castigated for anything you do. The one guy got mad and gave you a poor rating - big deal, really. He may have had a legit gripe or maybe he was having a bad day, maybe he's one of those "I ULTRA-HATE KNOCKBACK AND WISH I COULD HATE YOU TO PIECES FOR EVER USING IT!" types. Who knows? I've had my two arcs played a total of about 75 times now and have had the range of feedback on it; once I even got two feedback reports back to back that told me X was perfect and that X (the same X, yes) needed to be taken out.
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Anyways, I would like to address the Solo/story arcs side. Since the costom critters are tougher than standard mobs, it became very evident that when I wanted to play story arcs, I really should take a character that can take a beating. Since the arc is unknown, you should be wise and prepare for a tough fight. Thus, I much prefer my scrapper or tanker to my blaster or defender. To me it just makes sense.
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As an MA creator, you need to keep in mind your audience. If you are doing a low level arc, you use Standard (or Custom after I15) to keep the challenge down to a decent level. I have 2 custom bosses and a custom Lt in my first arc for levels 1-14. It took several run throughs and some switching around of powersets, but when they are mentioned in feedback now, it is usually about them being a good fit for the levels.
If you are creating a challenge mission or something for high level, you can choose different power settings that can make people work for it. The real difficulty is creating something that can be played by any level. The Devs have the same problem, that is why so many of the groups in the game only show up for certain levels. And the ones that are for 1-50, like the CoT, have different sets of minions, Lts., and Bosses for different level ranges.
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The other side of this is that I also wrote 2 arcs (see below), yet I recieved a low rating because one player ran into the knockback that some of my custom mobs had in my second arc. I can certainly sympathize with that guys problems, and I tried to change the custom mobs but I am unsure how effective that will be because I changed one status effect for another (Power to Electricity).
...
Honestly, I felt quite bad about that person having trouble playing my arc, that is not what I intended. I want people to enjoy the story, not get miffed because of a game mechanic that is out of my control.
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You want to be mindful of how your choices affect the players, but you also have to realize, you will not please everyone. My first arc has over 250 plays, with 4 stars. Most of the feedback has been positive. But some of the bad hasn't liked the story, the plot, or the map choice. I agreed about one of the maps, and changed it when I found another that would fit. There is another map I am not changing because it fits my idea of the the way the story goes. If the Devs ever add one that fits the story in my mind, then I will change it. But until then, the current map stays despite people not liking it.
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If you haven't, I suggest you read this excellent Guide to Custom Critters. It has a lot of information about appropriate powersets, how not to overpower your critters, etc.
Just a few comments about the MA in general.
Is it just me or are there essentially 2 MAs. One is for Teaming and getting XP, the other is for Solo, playing story arcs?
Anyways, I would like to address the Solo/story arcs side. Since the costom critters are tougher than standard mobs, it became very evident that when I wanted to play story arcs, I really should take a character that can take a beating. Since the arc is unknown, you should be wise and prepare for a tough fight. Thus, I much prefer my scrapper or tanker to my blaster or defender. To me it just makes sense.
The other side of this is that I also wrote 2 arcs (see below), yet I recieved a low rating because one player ran into the knockback that some of my custom mobs had in my second arc. I can certainly sympathize with that guys problems, and I tried to change the custom mobs but I am unsure how effective that will be because I changed one status effect for another (Power to Electricity).
My point is that if your going to use custom mobs, there will be some players that will use toons that have a weakness to whatever your using. There is really no way to prevent this from happening.
In the end, what I guess I would like to say is that MA writers should be aware of this problem, but MA players should also bring toons that can handle a tougher playing environment. I suspect that I will only play MA story content with either a scrapper or tanker, because I want to follow the story and enjoy the content, I don't want to be taking trips to the hospital every few minutes.
Honestly, I felt quite bad about that person having trouble playing my arc, that is not what I intended. I want people to enjoy the story, not get miffed because of a game mechanic that is out of my control.
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